PEOPLE-MISTY COPELAND/BROADWAY Ballerina Misty Copeland leaps on to Broadway

Record ID: 142888

  • Title: PEOPLE-MISTY COPELAND/BROADWAY Ballerina Misty Copeland leaps on to Broadway
  • Date: 21st August 2015
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF COPELAND PERFORMING
  • Embargoed: 5th September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA8CT1725K9SDZR04FYHTC6QKEH
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Misty Copeland, the American Ballet Theatre's first African-American female principal ballerina is set to make her Broadway debut in the musical "One The Town."
    The dancer is joining the production as "Ivy Smith" and performed "The Miss Turnstiles Ballet" for the press on Friday (August 21).
    Copeland is taking over the role from New York City Ballet principal dancer Megan Fairchild.
    The musical, which opened in October 2014 complete with a 28-piece orchestra, follows three sailors looking for love and excitement during a 24-hour leave in wartime 1940's New York.
    The revival of the 1944 musical, stars Broadway veteran Tony Yazbeck ("Gypsy") as the naive, awkward Gabey, a role made famous by Gene Kelly in the 1949 film version.
    He falls in love after seeing a subway poster of Miss Turnstiles and sets out with his two friends, the goofy Chip (Jay Armstrong Johnson) and the more knowing Ozzie (Clyde Alves), on a quest to find her.
    The sailors separate in their search to find Miss Turnstiles and agree to meet up later. Along the way Chip is taken for a wild ride by a gutsy lady cab driver played by Alyssa Umpires and Ozzie meets a zany anthropologist (Elizabeth Stanley) at the American Museum of Natural History.
    They gather later that evening for a tour of the city's hot-spots and dives that takes them from Times Square to Coney Island.
    The musical has more than 20 musical numbers, including "New York, New York," "Lonely Town" and "Lucky to Be Me."
    Copeland, 32, joined American Ballet Theatre in 2001 and has been a soloist with the prestigious company since 2007.
    Copeland has already been credited for being an inspiration for younger dancers and for bringing in more diverse audiences to ballet. In her best-selling memoir, she recounted how weird it was for minorities just to buy tickets to the ballet.
    Copeland will make her official debut on August 25.
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